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Home » Baking and Desserts » Spiced date cookies

Spiced date cookies

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Soft and crumbly, studded with succulent dates and flavoured with warming spices. These spiced date cookies are a childhood favourite that everyone will enjoy.

When I was little, my Mum used to bake date cookies. They were a real favourite – soft, chewy-crumbly and almost cakey, studded with chunks of toffee-ish dates. Delicious!

Spiced date cookies on a wire cooling rack.

On this page...

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  • Cookie nostalgia
  • Date cookie recipe
  • Dutch Spices
  • Spiced date cookies
  • Date cookies – ingredients
  • A terrific tea time treat
  • Spiced date cookies
  • More delicious cookie recipes

Cookie nostalgia

A few years ago, I was reminiscing about these cookies, and decided to bake some for Rosh Hashana – the Jewish new year – as dates are one of many symbolic foods for the festival.

I asked my Mum for her recipe. But I was devastated to learn that she had lost it! Her trusty recipe notebook, filled in by hand over years of cooking, had vanished without a trace.

Ever the fatalist, she had taken this loss in her stride, but I was gutted. I set about trying to recreate the date cookies from scratch, borrowing bits of recipes left, right and centre.

I ate a lot of sub-standard date cookies.

Date cookie recipe

Then, joy of joys! The notebook reappeared!

The first thing I did was to copy out the date cookie recipe. The second thing I did was to make a batch! The date cookies didn’t disappoint. I time-travelled back to my Mum’s kitchen, a child again. The taste was so evocative. 

Stack of three Spiced date cookies.

Dutch Spices

Meanwhile, I’d received some information about speculaas spice – a traditional Dutch spice mixture containing cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and six other spices. It is traditionally used in the preparation of speculaas biscuits, a favourite snack of Dutch children. 

In a moment of wild abandon, I decided to add some speculaas spice mix to my date cookie mixture, instead of the usual vanilla. 

Spiced date cookies

The results? Delicious!

The familiar soft texture was unchanged, but the spices added a subtle warmth that went very well with the dates. One of my tasters ‘complained’ that she needed a mug of tea and a roaring fire to go with her date cookies. A bit unlikely for June, and to be fair, these kinds of gingerbread spices are probably more common in the UK in the winter months. But then, they eat them in the Caribbean year round, and it’s pretty hot there. So make these date cookies whenever you like!

Three Spiced date cookies piled up.

Date cookies – ingredients

These date cookies use pretty standard pantry ingredients. The only thing you might not already have is the speculaas spice, but you can substitute any sweet spice mix for a similar effect, or leave it out altogether.

To make these yummy cookies, you will need:

  • Dates – obviously! I recommend buying chopped stoned dates, otherwise you will have to spend ages stoning and chopping them yourself, which is fiddly and tedious.
  • Butter or margarine – butter tastes better, marg is parve, take your pick.
  • Light muscovado sugar – this is a soft light brown sugar that gives a wonderful flavour to the date cookies.
  • Egg
  • Self-raising flour
  • Bicarbonate of soda
  • Speculaas spice mix – or use mixed spice, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon etc, or just leave it out. The original recipe from my Mum used vanilla instead – see the notes in the recipe card below.

A terrific tea time treat

I’m so glad I can enjoy my Mum’s delicious date cookies whenever I want to! And now you can join me – yay!

This recipe makes 34 spiced date cookies.

Soft & crumbly, studded with succulent dates and flavoured with warming spices. These spiced date cookies are a childhood favourite that everyone will enjoy.

If you want deliciously easy, family-friendly recipes like this one delivered straight to your inbox, simply click here to subscribe. (Of course, I’ll never pass on your email address to anyone.)

📖 Recipe

Spiced date cookies on a wire cooling rack.

Spiced date cookies

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Soft and crumbly, studded with succulent dates and flavoured with warming spices. These spiced date cookies are a childhood favourite that everyone will enjoy.
4.67 from 3 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Saved!
Prep Time 20 minutes mins
Cook Time 10 minutes mins
Total Time 30 minutes mins
Course Cookie
Cuisine American, Jewish
Servings 34 cookies
Calories 89 kcal

Ingredients
 
 

  • 155 g margarine or butter
  • 100 g light muscovado sugar (or similar light brown soft sugar)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 teaspoon speculaas spice mix (or your favourite sweet spice mix)
  • 255 g self-raising flour
  • 200 g chopped stoned dates

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 165°C (330°F). Line at least one baking sheet with parchment.
  • Cream the margarine and sugar till fluffy. Add the egg, bicarb and spice and mix well.
  • Add about a third of the flour, and a third of the dates, and mix well. Add another third of each, and mix. Add the final third of the flour and dates, and combine everything thoroughly to give a stiff dough.
  • Allow the dough to stand for 5-10 minutes to firm up slightly.
  • Take walnut-sized blobs of the dough, roll into balls, and flatten into discs. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 165°C (330°F) for around 10 minutes until golden. They will spread slightly in the oven, so leave some space between them.
  • Allow to cool for a minute or two on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

You can use any sweet spice mix in place of the speculaas in this recipe, for instance mixed spice, pumpkin pie spice, or hawaij l’cafe.
To make my Mum’s ‘traditional’ recipe for date cookies, omit the speculaas spice mix and add half a teaspoon of vanilla essence instead.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts
Spiced date cookies
Serving Size
 
1 cookie
Amount per Serving
Calories
89
% Daily Value*
Fat
 
4
g
6
%
Saturated Fat
 
2
g
13
%
Trans Fat
 
1
g
Polyunsaturated Fat
 
1
g
Monounsaturated Fat
 
1
g
Cholesterol
 
15
mg
5
%
Sodium
 
35
mg
2
%
Potassium
 
53
mg
2
%
Carbohydrates
 
13
g
4
%
Fiber
 
1
g
4
%
Sugar
 
7
g
8
%
Protein
 
1
g
2
%
Vitamin A
 
122
IU
2
%
Vitamin C
 
1
mg
1
%
Calcium
 
8
mg
1
%
Iron
 
1
mg
6
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Keyword baking, dates, spice
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

More delicious cookie recipes

If you love cookies, you might also enjoy these delicious apple and honey cookies, these wonderful ginger spice cookies, these fabulous inside-out cheesecake cookies, and these yummy coconut cranberry oatmeal cookies.

Treat Petite is organised by The Baking Explorer and Cakeyboi, who is also hosting this month. I’m also entering this recipe into Bake Fest, an event for vegetarian baked goods. Yum!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lisa

    November 25, 2023 at 1:47 am

    Hi! These remind me a lot of the date nut spice cookies ( and hermit cookies!) my mom only made at Christmas time! Honestly date nut are my favorite cookie! Thank you for sharing!

    Reply
    • Helen

      November 25, 2023 at 5:17 pm

      Thanks Lisa – I love it when recipes bring back happy memories 🙂

      Reply
  2. Gem Cook

    December 05, 2015 at 12:00 pm

    I’ve got to make these for Christmas, these look and sound delicious!
    Thank you for sharing xxx

    Reply
  3. Midlands Mum (@Aceso84)

    November 24, 2015 at 11:26 pm

    Oh nom nom, these look delicious. I love dates and will definitely give these a go.

    Reply
  4. Kat

    June 30, 2014 at 9:38 pm

    My grandad used to eat dates all the time when I was little, but I never thought of putting them in cookies until now. Great recipe! Thanks for entering these into Treat Petite 🙂

    Reply
    • FFF

      June 30, 2014 at 9:53 pm

      You need to thank my Mum! Thanks for hosting 🙂

      Reply
    • Judith Phythian

      September 03, 2020 at 5:09 pm

      Dear Helen
      Not being the type to leave a comment, these cookies decided me!
      The cookies recipe is perfect, it exactly resembles your description. As we are a large family I bake most days and already have used your basic recipe to make the best ever chocolate chunk cookies and hazelnut and white chocolate cookies. ( Just substitute the dates for the other ingredients). I follow your challa instructions and give us and the Airbnb visitors a real treat on a Friday. Not sure what they think when I explain what Challa is but they seem to come back for more. I also have made your spiced honey cake several times over the last few weeks.
      Now, if I need a recipe I turn to you first. Thank you.
      If you ever come down to Exeter again ( saw the great synagogue pictures on your blog) please come and stay at our Airbnb for free so I can thank you with action and not just words.

      Reply
      • Helen

        September 04, 2020 at 8:42 am

        Hi Judith. Thank you so much for this – I’m almost crying reading it! So happy to hear that you and your family love my recipes 😀
        I hope that we’ll be in Devon again next year. We missed visiting this summer. Take care and stay safe, Helen x.

        Reply
  5. Stuart

    June 27, 2014 at 5:50 pm

    That speculaas was wonderful stuff Helen wasn’t it! Thanks for joining in with Treat Petite this month.

    Reply
    • FFF

      June 28, 2014 at 9:00 pm

      My pleasure! Loving all the other fabulous entries too 🙂

      Reply
4.67 from 3 votes (3 ratings without comment)

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